With some 25 years in the industry, designer and draftsperson, Nadine Ryan has worked on almost 1200 projects, and of these, she can count on one hand those that haven’t featured LYSAGHT® steel building products.

This preference for steel is probably not a surprise though considering her father, Noel, was a plumber and roofer – it was a close relationship between the pair that would often see Nadine join her dad on the worksite, and even had her contemplating joining the trade.

“I loved going to work with dad, he taught me a lot about the industry, I grew up helping him and watching him work on metal roofs, gutters and downpipes,” Nadine said.

“I was interested in becoming a plumber, but dad wasn’t that keen, he knew how tough a job it could be and discouraged me.”

Following high school, Nadine stayed true to her ambitions of working in the building industry, but rather than being ‘on the tools’ she pursued a design course at TAFE, and as her confidence grew, she also began helping Noel to order materials for his plumbing business.

“Once I became a building designer, we used to sit together and work out the roof design, gutter length and so forth, so I have always been connected to using LYSAGHT® products shaped from COLORBOND® steel,” Nadine said.

After three years working as a designer for a building company, in 1997 Nadine started her own design business, Nadine K Drafting & Design. The bulk of her early work was on pergolas, additions and renovations, but more recently the focus has shifted to new home designs.

Nadine said that she’s noticed considerable change in the construction industry during her time.

“Architectural trends have changed over the years and there’s definitely been a shift from tiles to steel roofing,” she said.

“The wider use of flat and skillion roofs means steel is the perfect choice. For construction on challenging sites where the homes are on poles or stumps, you also need to consider lighter weight construction and materials, so steel is preferable to tiles here as well.”

Nadine said that during her earlier years of practice LYSAGHT® products had predominantly been used for roofing, however there was now an enormous range of products available for both cladding and roofing applications.

“Initially corrugated CUSTOM ORB® and MINI ORB® were the roofing profiles of choice when it came to most homes, but occasionally you’d get an adventurous client that would also use CUSTOM ORB® wall cladding,” Nadine explained.

“With a wider choice though, and with domestic architecture further progressing, new homeowners are now more open to pushing the boundaries and are receptive to new design ideas.”

Over the years Nadine has specified a wide selection of LYSAGHT® steel products including CUSTOM ORB®, MINI ORB®, KLIP-LOK®, LONGLINE®, and for the first time she’s also recently specified CUSTOMFLOW® on a project. Her favourite LYSAGHT® steel product however is ENSEAM®.

“An employee of BlueScope introduced me to ENSEAM® and I think it’s fantastic,” Nadine said.

“At 265mm I like the width, it provides great shadow lines and is available in a wide range of colours – it works well with different style homes and complements other materials. I normally try to incorporate three different materials in each home design to create visual interest and a LYSAGHT® steel product is always one of them – they blend with all materials.”

Nadine said that increasingly her clients were looking for homes that combined interesting and aesthetically pleasing designs with low maintenance qualities, a brief that ENSEAM® and the entire LYSAGHT® range excelled at meeting. For her personally, the LYSAGHT® steel building product range also meets sustainability goals.

“The growth of steel for use as wall cladding has been a gamechanger and has provided many more options both from a design perspective but also for the very little maintenance steel needs compared to other building products,” she said.

“I also like the sustainability of the LYSAGHT® range – the base steel is locally manufactured by BlueScope and then shaped by Lysaght in Australia, as well as being recyclable.”

Having been exposed to the construction industry early in her career through her dad and working in-house for a builder, Nadine is in the enviable position of having a strong knowledge of both design and construction processes, making her an invaluable asset to clients beginning their construction journey.

Close working relationships with roofing plumbers also provides her with valuable trade insights, which help her when specifying roofing and cladding.

“Having a good relationship with installers allows me to gain firsthand knowledge of the installation processes and what works best in terms of flashings, cappings or more generally the challenges that might be faced during installation, such as what should be considered when installing certain profiles around windows,” Nadine explained.

“For other technical information I find that the LYSAGHT® website is an excellent resource centre.”

To learn more about Nadine K Drafting & Design, visit: www.nadinekdesign.com.au